"Stand by"
"…and welcome back, right on time for a battery change… no, no; once I programmed the route on my laptop it told me if the battery of Ich1 would be able to make the trip… speaking of which, how was it?... Yes, that's what I first thought, Einstein's relativity a heavy object pulling down a sheet or in this case a diamond glass floor, but the grid shape of the sheet makes it look bit more like the common description you see in textbooks about the theory…"
"…yes, and also yes, moving down from there it is more visible that the government building the mall and the museum designs goes all the way down here, but here they look as if those three were hanging from the ceiling… okay Ich1 is ready… up you go… and back to architecture, yes it is different from the Deep Learning facility, we will get to that in a moment, for now we will focus on the design of this three, and how they are keeping the style of their counter parts up above under the sunlight…"
"…for example, where the government building had a single tower outside, here we have two, the mall one and the museum two again; made this way for balance, this way the weight is more evenly distributed, but in here they look more like a honeycomb than parts of a castle, or even a regular building… yeah and the balconies are now for workers down here; also the glass are one way see through, they also display the same things as up above so, no much of a difference there…"
"…uh? No, no, this is only the kaleidoscope I mentioned earlier, but here looks more like a chandelier, and up there as a sunclock… no, not a quantum computer, it may look like an early design of one, but this is not even that, it only has the hanging shape, but there is no coldness when you are under it… oh from here now it also looks like an iceberg or a crystal formation, or even a piece of bismuth given all the bright colors, and also it is not being covered by the fishtanks holding a clear cooler, nor we are able to see ion traps, and there is no sounds coming from it, it is pure aesthetics to illuminate the place…"
"…it is just a light show, and here every bit helps, to make it look more lively, it makes me feel like I'm walking into a Japanese cyberpunk market made around a collider, or in a subway station from a video game or a manga; no, not the traditional market place we are used to watch there or in South Korea; that was why I mention a manga, because they have been the most serious about the future, most of their lives I feel that revolves around what's next, you see it in the way they work, talk or make art… yeah it feels that way to me, and to me, Japan in many ways was the closer one to reach that kind of future, either to a dystopic or brighter one…"
"…what? Yeah, the illuminated railway tracks tell us their heading, purple, which is the one we will be using, goes around the market here and then down the vase, will circle around the lower floors under the offices until I make it stop; so it means this is a public transport, which also means it could make a few stops along the way; the one next to it is green it will head straight to the nest, and back to the maintenance building either here or down; yellow road is a trip to the middle floors, the zone is made of three huge floors and has more streets and room than any other."
"Next is the red one, it will move up and down as a regular elevator, all the way up to the hotel as well, and it would be the only way to reach any of the main buildings hanging here… no, there are no pilots, all is controlled by drones, and some by people, but remotely, which would be the only the only issue with traffic around here, to be behind a white or colorless pod, white would be to transport goods, or workers and the others are for more serious stuffs like for security and such…"
"…oookay let's get us a pod, just call it with the tower's app… no, not red, purple, we are going around this part and then going all the way down and around, well perhaps not around since we will not be arriving at the office's levels, but right under them where the access pods and the security's offices are, so not very interesting stuffs… okay here is our ride, let's get Ich1 outside at a legal distance from the pods and the railway tracks… what? of course I don't want to get my drone to be put down!…"
"…or they will simply track who owns the drone and lock my phone and laptop, and they will take Ich1 and I will not get it back until my case is judged and I get sentenced, probably will just get a warning and get flagged, which means I will not be able to use another drone until the tag is removed and that would take a week at best since I have no other problems with the law… honest, it will not be that serious, at least not once they proved my intentions and my abilities as a drone pilot, or programmer in this case, and I am very capable on both things…"
"…yes, of course I am scared, I prefer to work with Ich1 or rather with the software than the hardware; so I'm not gonna do a forced visits to the security's department if I can avoid it, even if the view there is kinda cool, bit dark, since it is just a balcony looking at the pillars of the tower the server room… room… and a bit more, but we will get there once we move down, we are still admiring the market… well first we are waiting for our ride, which is taking time, probably because nobody is making the tour and are just heading straight to their place…"
"…huh? No, no; it is my opinion, I feel like I'm walking inside a comic book or a manga; some things are inspired by other places for functionalities sake alone, or because Armand has reach out to people from all over the world to make this happen; if it were just for ego then the Flower Vase would be bigger than the Japanese superstructure, and would be considered another district as well, but this building here feels lively, more so down here; perhaps it is the constant movement, the pods, regular people walking around, eating or shopping; our ride is here…"
"…yes I said that, money is not used here, because that word has transcended, shopping is no longer done as an exchange of currency for goods, but has turn into a way to facilitate a person to express itself freely, by either promoting the designs and workshop, or by getting exactly what you want the way you need it… no, I'm not exaggerating, even with the food you can be original you get to eat what you like or can or are able since some is seasonal; then we meet art, like if you were walking into a tattoo shop where you can ask for what you need, maybe a painting, or a sculpture, or even designing your art for your own space…"
"…yes, you only have to visit the right shop, then the delivery is handled by the mall if needed; which we are now passing by… huh? Well there is not much else to say about the towers hanging down other than they have some medium and large printing lines for clothes, shoes, and some for assembling furniture, and machines, if your needs are greater then you will need to ask ahead and maybe you will be greenlighted and be able to assemble it home, but we cannot see any of that… look, some white pods are moving into the runway…"
"…huh? Good question, no, not that one, the one about how they handle deliveries, let me lower the speed of the pod to explain… well for food is simpler, you get the regular cart when there are multiple deliveries all goes into a pod; for bigger things, those are transported using the pods and then moved up using an elevator, but I'm sure you were asking about the buildings upstairs with no connection to the ground floor, and for that the answer is simpler…"
"…the market place where we are now have three levels, the middle one is this where we are moving around right now; there is one above us, between this and the upper floor, made for services of the upper buildings; and the third one below us that extends all the way to the runway and the Nest for the same thing, which is where the gas, power and water lines are; most of the times are drones the ones that does the work, but as always, there are human supervision to every work, which means there is also people moving around there or even staying there I case of emergencies."
"But back to the shops, every delivery needs to go through the mall, sometimes those are distributed through the service floors… because they need to know if you have the room for any of it, for example when asking for clothing more than four pairs of shoes are enough… buuut, I usually wear a lot of clothing all the time, and here they only prevent me from getting new outfits is the Law of Austerity that limits anybody from getting stuffs in excess, in my case given the small apartment for a single person I have lots of limits, unlike people with a family household they have the room for almost anything."
"Okay it will be difficult for me to point out at any particular shop they don't have names or advertisings or lights, all is seen through your phone, using the map or your IAglasses, but the view is enough for you all to be informed of the kind of things that are here, Ich1 will show you the four levels of markets attached to the wall stretching for two more squares as we pass through and in which only a person with special needs can get a pod into, so eyes open… there, did you see that shop? It is a drone shop, to print any addition, or upgrade, even to do a checkup…"
"…yeah, maybe I should've move closer to the shops, but I thought that from the fifth track you could see the place better since there are too much shops around for me to point them all out, there is enough room for five tracks… look, over there they are doing a tech show, probably is just a new design you can print, it is a usual thing to do, as you know, they do a public test for you to print yours… and that's a repair shop… I think there is no real order to the shops, they are just around, and they fit our needs… huh? Well in my case I asked for a filter for air pollution, which I don't need here, and extra window shade for my allergy."
"Okay will speed up the pod until we reach the school… sorry, the learning facilities… huh? Wait, let me show you the single tower moving down from the museum… aaand then now let me point at the way into the building, there it is the elevator; no, no stairs, same goes for the mall and the government building since the access for public is located up above; but if you want stairs those in front of the mall, at the start of the runway on our way to the nest would be your best choice, and also those in front of the government building where the maintenance building is; yeah, the one I use to get down here…"
"…and now we have reach the Deep Learning facilities… yup, takes up the entire south of the building, not just up, but here too, and rumors are that even down here they have taken a big chunk of the place… my guess is that it was made this way since it is what interest the most to Armand, the knowledge that is, or at least the gathering of knowledge which always finds its way here, no matter the subject, but only in conceptual work, testing anything to volatile, big or energy consuming must be done elsewhere…"
"…hence the size, or rather the occupation of the area; as you can see, it comes all the way down, and it leaves a tunnel for us to pass through… and as I said before, the stadium, the theater, the Dolan building and the Deep Learning facilities are all connected down here, probably for some extra server room, or something else… yes! absolutely, if people doesn't know what's under it, then it is an off limits area for most people; and probably it also has to do with safety… at least more so in the case of the Nest and that would be another reason for it to be so far apart from the main structure, I think…"
"…well it is because the area specialize in medical-biological research, development and care, which means it has a hospital, and a series of labs around a greenery, you will see… for now we are about to reach the government building to move down… oh right, those over there in front of us are meeting rooms, some bigger restaurants, or event halls… I have not been invited to one of those places, when I arrived, I went through the other side of the main entrance, not where the maintenance building is, but right beside it…"
"…yeah it is not exactly a gift shop, it is more like a welcoming area so to say, there do have photos, postcard for you to take, paintings, little sculptures and key chains… when I arrived I was afraid to take anything so I just got the welcome, some introductions and then went around the market, until I was guided to my new place… yeah sure, if they are free I could send you a keychain, if you all deal with the cost of delivery… yeah, got you there, hahahahaha… it really is the wort part of it all in here…"
"…but I will look into it and let you know, maybe I will send it to Lauka and let her deal with the delivery… sorry Lau, deliveries are easier out there than here, here they are always held and put on a long waiting queue, or several, the first one would be at the border to see if I'm not sending anything illegal, then at customs, and then by the delivery service of your choosing and those will hold any package coming from here; but I have heard of another option, I would need to send it to one of Kuo'SAR's offices and ask my bestfriend, my screenwall, my pfp, my business partner and roommate to deal with the next step…"
"…but first I will see if it is possible for me to use the delivery service of Kuo'SAR, they still deal with the regulations and waits, but would be a package sent from the company to a company's office elsewhere, or something like that, I might get away with it, since I was sent here by Gil; after that, if they don't have any problems with that I will take orders; keep in mind that the bigger the object you want the more expensive the delivery will be… huh? Hey, don't blame me, once it reaches your country you can blame it on it for the taxes…"
"…on my end I will only need to make the request with a clear amount, they will either send it to my apartment or directly to the border, and the at Kuo'SAR's offices for Lauka to pick them up; the reason, or reasons why they are okay with it is, one, I'm not selling them, just sharing them; the second reason is because it is a bit of promotion for the company; and lastly is that most of the stuffs I would send are made with recycled materials and those are not against the law; which also means that the best would be the keychains since they are made of diamond glass and here they have lots of it to spare…"
"…okay we reach the Government building again, but now we will go see the lower floors… just need to move in place for it… need to strap into a seat… yes, it was there all along, but I didn't see the point of pulling it out, until now that I'm required to be sited since the pod is going down, straight down, taking an upright position, hence I need to pull the seat up, otherwise the pod will only move away to get me help or just to not stop traffic, okay here we go…"
"No match found, no evidence found, no potential crime detected, moving on to the suspect number one hundred and twenty-four"
"No match found, no evidence found, no potential crime detected, moving on to the suspect number one hundred and twenty-five"
– This is moving to slow, there are too many people…
– Yeah, did you consider that it might be the plan Hammerhead sir? To make us look for several needles, on several haystacks; but is also probable that the needle is not even here right now, and is only watching from afar…
– …waiting? No, one of those people are the ones we are looking for, the ones that are trying to get Armand, they need to be close, because we forced their hand into looking for an opening… right now is not the best opportunity, Canyonslide's roads are too closed to try to move around a crowd right now…
– …only from the underground they would be able to do that…
– …precisely, how are you on that end Big sis?
– I'm still guiding my drones into position, and the hammer bros are still moving into position on their end of the desert to do the same, so, I'm going through the maps of the area, a little of speleology; at least of those caves that survived the time, the war and Armand; all to find an opening…
– An opening? Are you searching for a clearer path?
– …Yes, in deed, I don't know how much time will it take me but I need the best starting point, a crack somewhere to drop my drones to save time.
I'm also sending the twins some maps for them to do the same on their side of the desert, but perhaps the team behind Wellspring will not need any aid into finding a way in, but my guess is that our team at Vanire will have it worst that us…
But if I could perhaps use the satdrone for a few moments, it would save time, a lot of time, that way I could send them straight into a point…
– …we cannot take more time from the satdrone, we still need it for our updates, to keep track of the people around Armand, and the comes and goes into the desert from the states' borders…
– Um… even for the actual work we are supposed to be doing here? … I mean, I only need some minutes every time the satdrome moves into the position I want, and I better do it now, this data you brought feels odd, repetitive in a way, would say lazy if it weren't for the fact that the satdrone does the entire work, and the predictions its being making are exact, to exact to be natural…
– Will open a window for you during the surveillance try to make the most out of it… okay?
– Will do… sir. – Data redundancy on this subject was not possible, let alone at such degree, one spot or two perhaps, but not on every state's borders, or natural pathways, and even worst, not with Kuo'SAR's tech.
It was clear somebody was tempering with the data, putting on the same, or the one best fitted for their goals, changing bits of the information at times perhaps, not showing the paths.
It would also mean that Elaine had to remember every conversation she ever had with Art about dirt and rocks, as she joked with him about geology or geography, since he had studied one for years after meeting her under the same circumstances she had met Gisel and Thy, but by then he was already a educated geologist; she wanted to call upon him to confirm her thoughts, but Art was too far away investigating sinkholes three countries away from Whales' Desert, and Hammerhead did not allowed any communications that would reveal too much information to outsiders; but for what she had seen for the last few hours she didn't really need any help from Art; the complete lack of movement from a natural pathway was too strange, so she only needed to make sure for how long, in both time and length had this been happening.
Once her fourth time at the helm of the satdrone came, and small conversation with Hammerhead, it was clear the scans had not been updated for the last ten years; which now meant that Elaine had to update the maps for the team, without alerting the Blankers in any way; it also meant that Hammerhead had to hurry the other two teams to get into position on their end of the desert to deploy Elaine's drones as soon as possible to work underground, the only good news were that Elaine had already prepared those drones, or rather the design to be printed and deployed.
For the unlucky side of it all was that it showed her a mistake that could have help her deal with this problem faster by deploying this drones sooner, before the team on the RV had crossed the border into the desert, instead of trusting completely the fabricated data the satdrone was giving them, it was why she had decided to run the suspects search in the background, letting the IAs on it, while she kept an eye on the drones.
– …Bigsis?
– Hey, what's up Hammer bro?
– Not much, I think the command… I mean, Hammerhead is getting impatient, so I thought, I would come and ask about your work, if you need any help or…
– …or if I have some ideas? No, sadly all I have right now is work, I have Ell3 on the lookout for underground frequencies, and coded conversation…
– I… no, we don't actually blame you for the scans… wait, did Hammerhead let you go through private conversations? She told us to keep everything legal…
– and I am keeping it legal, I'm not listening, I'm just looking, if the device has it's number blocked, or if they use another satellite of any other company to run search, calls or conversations, I just search that person to see where they might be or if they make a call north of here Ell3 takes a peek at that person to do the same background check we have been doing with any other suspects…
– …that still sounds illegal…
– …not really, they know it can happen, and I'm respecting their privacy by not listening, nor making Ell3 read their lips; besides, I'm running out of ideas, we have been here for a day and a half and nothing has happened! you already know the people who are following Armand better than their own mothers, and phones; and nothing has shown up, and I cannot track any underground broadcast through any signal, no Wi-Fi use, nor in any sat transmissions, it would mean they have their own system that might be here underground…
– …oh, hence your focus on the fake work we were supposed to be doing here, instead of letting the drones do it themselves? And do you really expect to find physical lines down there?
– Yeah, I'm also distracting myself by it, cannot stop blaming myself for not deploying my drones sooner, I already had them at hand, it could have been really easy and fast since they are just as easy and cheap to make, and quite sturdy since they were meant to research sinkholes and underground water paths near cenotes, or aquifers on moist and dry forests; here might be trickier since there is only heat, so instead I'm trying to use cold to locate paths, but the setting is all wrong, I need another type of scanner or let them depend on sight alone, but then the battery might die faster, or find a better way to track paths, not to mention that I have not found a common meeting path to begin with… and I'm running low on materials, hope that a hundred a fifty two drones be able to do the work...
– What will we do about repairs? With these and the other drones?
– We will have to make do, our Hammerhead knows this, and we cannot go shopping to the nearest store right now, but once my drones make the job, we can re-use the materials, I would say eighty percent of it, since that was the intended use for them to help towns with low funds…
– Then, you don't really need me, right?
– No really, unless you have other idea, to narrow the search, or about the coms, I feel like I'm just waiting for things to happen, bad things… worst part is, we are catching up to them… but never mind, go inside, ask the twin bros if they have ideas about how to upgrade my drones… I guess I'm gonna need to tell our Hammerhead about my surveillance style since is failing…
– …yeah, I guess we cannot order some drones with your design to be deployed at different places…
– …we could, out of desperation, and I would still need to get some of mine there to upgrade their orders, which would require me to send the commands to the shop and it would put at risk our work, I guess now it is better if they think we are being incompetents; I'm feeling a bit negative at the moment, I better keep busy instead of thinking of my errors…
– There was none, we simply trusted too much on that thing up there, we now have to trust in what we are doing now I guess… which mean, we better gear up and stay vigilant.
– Yeah no problem there, your IA and Hammerhead's have that cover, and we are in the desert, there are few places where they can hide, right?
– Yes, and no, the Blankers are very good at hiding, even if we found a good spot on top of this dune, the other teams might have troubles with the line of sight, on one end the canyons are more noticeable as the team moves deeper, they will be easy to spot, even if they are using just the desertbugs to move around, it also means they will have to cover more ground to just set up camp.
On the other end behind Vanire the wind is stronger, climate can change from one hour to another, sandstorms, or thunderstorms, floods, freezing temperatures, even with the RV, visibility will be another enemy to fight…
– And Blankers would be more suited to navigate those climates, right?
– …perhaps, or perhaps not… but they do have a way to do stay alive here, and even deeper into the desert, while keeping us away.
– keeping you afraid is more likely, why…?
– Don't go there, you know Armand prefers to outwit people that cross him; or simply downplay them by putting up a show of strength and abilities, even forcing them to make a move by making fun of them, he said it before, 'we cannot always trust the plan, so we make it hard for them to execute theirs'…
– …with no guns? Only your armor and… 'exploring gear'?
– Come on, we brought the best, not just The best armor, also combat equipment, antimob gear, and you guys…
– …and that is what you would say to try and calm me down, but in reality, what did you brought? The mob gear, only for surveillance, multi-purpose military grade drones, fully equipped, with sound canons, tear gas, and flashlights? You didn't even bring rubber bullets… no, no, wait, I know the no guns rule, and the Austerity law to not waste anything you cannot pick up later, but we might need it…
– …how did you find out about that?…
– …don't look so worried, the chopper told me some things that made it look like you could carry and deploy the drones from it; it had the setting ready when I did the first diagnostic, and the extra battery for those spaces, and then the RV confirm it when I saw the 'off limits closet' on the back of the it with the independent energy source and connection with the satdrone, so, I know what you brought, I'm just wondering if ten ant-mobs battle drones will be enough…
– …hey that's why we are here, we know how to make them work, it will be fine, if anything I'm more worried about the guys at near Armand than us or our people on the next states, I'm even more worried about you, you seemed off…
– …I'm good, just anxious, I'm feeling like I'm not ready for the unexpected… but you might have given me an idea… I might have to use one drone to feed energy and information to another, if I turn it into a receiver for sound… – Elaine had been trying to use her drones underground where there was no light by detecting wind change on its propels, but also a temperature laser detector right in the middle of the propels helped her with that, by using a laser pointer, but now, she had to rely on sound as well, she only had to repurpose half of the drones for this, and hope that the battery use don't be too much.
But the next part was something she had not considered, Wellspring State, or rather the natural paths and cave paths that had already form there, so, it was best to send them there to start the investigation, since finding a path where Elaine and the team were, was taking too much time.
But at Vanire, it proved to be even more challenging, but there and then they relied too much on the use of the artificial hive mind of the drones to get any kind of information back and forth, which took them twice the usual and more than a day to find a way into the underground, for that it only took an idea of one of the Hammer bros to get the drone into a path inside a tall rock formation to get the information back to where Elaine was.
– I see you made progress Bigsis.
– I did… sir; I guess I got used to having quick result… downside of living at the tower, same with the underground caves, which, by the way, seemed empty, the scans are not as precise as I would have liked, despite their link my hive of drones lacks definition, even with the addition of the eco-location; none the less, I see no marks of hand-made paths.
– How does your drones work? I have seen the recordings, you say they work as a hive, but that is not how a hive behaves, let alone as flocks do…
– you know your animals? That is surprising…
– No, I don't, I know how drones work when together, a hive is able to coordinate following a set of commands or orders, and when flocking they move following a set path, but yours don't do the same…
– …yeah, is not the same thing, but is easier to explain it that way, is just a basic IA, very basic, like some twenty thirty kind of IA, the lasers help them decide, when they see an opening through the temperature pointer one moves to the spot to investigate, while the others keep moving, then the one investigating the spot moves back and forth to transmit what it saw if needed, they have a terabyte of memory, once is about to be filled it gets back to share the information and moves back to work, or rather they, now each is paired with other drone scanning different things; the difficult part was the training, it did not included cave paths of this kind of weather, but thanks to my extra time with the satdrone, I was able to get some information about it…
– …let's hope it doesn't cause more problems.
– yeah, I hope so too, but I did not take the information from the tower… well at least not directly, but from a server kept elsewhere, with access for only a few, with a good set of security measure…
– Well, that seems to be illegal use of technology…
– …only when it is use for illegal activities, in reality is only a storage unit of a sort, we only save information, but we don't have actual communication through it, nor put anything illegal on it…
– …do you know who are you telling this, right…? … hold on… Hammer one, need visual, what has just pass through our grid? … Elaine…? Tap in…
– …way ahead of you… sir.
"I see nothing on the feed sir, nor does my drones, there are no other drones, nor people…"
– …the grid only detected something breaching it, don't look for electronic devices only, zoom in on the area and start following a path to our location, use two more drones to triangulate a movement prediction.
"Yes sir"
– What on earth? That's a falcon, and a condor… how did the manage to pass through our grid? It was working fine an hour ago… the condor might be chasing the falcon and got in out of panic… but.
– …of course you know birds… start a chase Hammer one, I want a closer look, their flight seems calm, doesn't look like they are fighting…
"Yes sir…"
– I can help… keep your eyes on the falcon, I will distract the condor.
"Yes… what the hell! Sir, they have training, they split…"
– …I can see that… it is following your patterns, bit slower, and trying to stay on top, but they are still birds…
– …oh, birds of prey… pigeons, set for a collision, see if you can push your target to face mine, let's see if their brain can reboot, I'm going to try and restart their instincts.
"Roger… I'm about to reach your spot… holy hell…! They move away, sir…?"
– Focus, they cannot turn as fast as you, align for a collision again, but pull a three sixty on them, their only choice will be up, the second they lift up you need to be already on top of them…
– You are not a bad driver miss… I mean sir… Hammer bro, snap some photos of condor, will circle around the condor to block its path, once we are close to one another I will spin to snap some photos of your falcon, and we will exchange…
"Got it, I'm closing in to your position… ready in three, two, one… what the hell? … they are not letting us move closer to one another, and I think they are trying to escape…"
– …what was that? Follow them bro… make the falcon go west, got a plan… Ell3 drive a drone for each through the sand focus on out movements to get under our targets, move as close to the grid as possible, once close enough take the photos…
"On it"
– … launch!
– …good work! Let's go to the chopper; Hammer one, reach the edge lf the grid and track their escape with the camera, until you lose them, and as high as you can. pull up the footage big sis.
– …already on it… here you go…
– …confirmation and scan on both…
– I can confirm it, those modifications on the wings, tails, talons, the cam on their forehead; are clear indicator of bio-drones.
– …what? You serious? It could just be some basic gear, cameras and some serious training…
– …focus on the feed Hammer, we know is not impossible, other countries have been using these methods, and even created necro-drones, to go unnoticed; show me the scans… this is odd…
– …I also thought it was odd, I mean, tech for bio-drones is against the law and all, but I have read about it, there is no scaring, nor damage on the animals, at least not any visible one, even that straps on the vests seems natural, but then this here, near the tail, let me zoom in… this modifications are to help them break and turn, this are flaps, but it is impossible for the animal to control them at will, they didn't evolve into them, even if a muscle might trigger the use of it, they activated the flaps to soon before turning…
– …two minds working together, somebody else decided faster for them, anything else?
– …I see basic tech, upgraded, the lenses are simple as well, but placing it on their foreheads means that the footage was not for them but for whoever was around, and yet, the fact that this whole time the grid didn't detected any signals coming in means that they were controlling them using other methods; I see no Bluetooth, infrared, nor Wi-Fi; I cannot tell how they are controlling them to this degree.
– Sir? They are gone, they went too low and used the mirage to cover the escape, tried to move further up to catch them, but I think somebody caught them…
– …sis? Are there any cave paths in that direction?
– Sure are, what I haven't found is any way down from there, not for kilometers and by doing turns and such, should we send drones up and down?
– Send them down.
– The only problem I can detect is that I would be sending them blindly and hope they don't get caught… I will set a regular mic on the drone, I don't have any more laser ones for it, I ran out, and the closest drone is a few kilometers away will take longer to get in position… okay it is set in auto, or…
– …Hammer one, you know the drill, use night mode as little as possible, rely on our new maps to drive it, do you know the target's speed?
– …ninety for the falcon and I think the same for condor but at top speed, ours will be of seventy flying and a hundred kilometer per hour on wheels, problem is, that it might be too loud in that setting…
– Deploy it as soon as possible.
– All yours Hammer bro… sir, I think this is our clue, they came here to find out why are we here, so they took a risk, and showed a card, this is how they do it, they push the bio-drone pass any of the country's grid, and once inside they deliver messages… pigeons…
– …it makes sense, at the tower we have better security, and eyes everywhere; and even if here they use the same grid to keep pests away, we are still learning how to secure it and rely on people to do the whole work; there are too many blind spots to cover and others we might nit know about…
– …yes, I think they send a pigeon, for example, with a message in and out of the grid, with this kind of gear they go unnoticed both for the camera and scanners by simply crossing with the gear off; and then people ignore them because they are animals, birds, dogs, maybe cats…
– …does that mean we now have to look for animals infiltrating the grid today?
– We don't have the time, we will focus only on those getting near, pass or through the grid from the moment Armand arrived into Canyon Slide to now, check for pets too, they can move around the town more freely in the cities even with their tags; only inform our teams on the desert, say nothing to the security team in any of the states for now, we must not alert anybody, but we will move our camp, and get ready for anything, we also need to keep track of the drones down in the caves, if we start losing them then they will have to act, and we will have to alert the rest of the people… Hammer one, gear up, you too Bigsis, suit up, and alert the other teams.
– Yes… sir.
– Yes, sir.